We seem to be constantly hit by a number of conflicting statements in the course of two weeks on energy generation. On the 20th October the Environment Secretary Liz Truss declared that the appearance of English farmland was ‘blighted by solar farms’. This week the National Grid warns of lower winter power capacity.
So despite the fact that we need to increase energy generation of all forms, is large scale Solar PV to be ruled out of the mix? I believe it would be a mistake to rule out any one valid energy generating solution out of the mix, be they renewable or not. The scale of the future energy crisis is such, that no one source of energy will be able to meet demands, in the timescales that are available to us. Now is not the time to be ruling out any viable forms of power generation.
How can large scale solar PV play a part? There is no need to encourage the building of solar PV on grade 1, 2, or 3a arable land that would be viable for growing crops. There is plenty of land that is grade 3b or worse that could be utilised. The benefit of Solar PV is that these sites can be mixed use, with the sites also being used for grazing. Nothing is lost in terms of agricultural use and there is a gain in terms of energy generation.
There are also plenty of brownfield sites that are unsuitable for residential developments due to cost of remediation. Solar PV is one of a number of uses to make these sites productive again, without resorting to high cost land remediation.
As with any decision due diligence will be and essential part of making the business case for any new installation, but Soil and Agricultural Land Assessments, Site Surveys to assess for contamination and other Asset Protection activities are a small part of the overall cost, but have a big impact in ensuring that developments are acceptable to planning.